Trivia Junction

A Compendium of trivia I find interesting
...for the curious

Headstrong Lice

Head lice, according to a Welsh study, are highly resistant to treatments containing pyrethroids, the active ingredient in many common head lice lotions and shampoos.

National Public Health Service researchers collected 393 head lice from a random sample of children in Wales in 2000. They then tested them for resistance to insecticides.

Their results appear in the June 14 issue of Archives of Disease in Childhood.

More than 80 percent of the lice had genes conferring resistance to pyrethroid insecticides. Products containing pyrethroids are sold in the United States under various brand names, including R&C Shampoo, Pronto, Rid and Nix.

The researchers also found some resistance to DDT, but none to malathion, a prescription sold in the United States with the brand name Ovide.

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